Tag: books

african author, african stories, Black Authors, Fiction, literary fiction, women's fiction

Book Review: The Sun Sets In Singapore by Kehinde Fadipe

twonightstands

“Sometimes the best person to listen to is the person who did exactly what you don’t want to do. Don’t let what your grandparents or your mother or anyone else wants or wanted influence you now”

Dara, Amaka and Lillian, all of Nigerian heritage, are currently expats living in Singapore. Dara is a lawyer, Amaka is a banker and Lillian was a pianist who moved from the U.S with her American husband. They are all living the lives they have created for themselves in Singapore, while each fighting their own battles until a new arrival, Lani steps in and affects their lives in different ways.

This was an okay read for me. It had an intriguing premise but I think I wavered on the execution. One minute, I found myself invested in the characters because Fadipe did a good job in fleshing them out and you get a good sense of who they are and how they are handling their various predicaments. We get a good grasp of their background and their families and the connection and friendships between each other, also made sense. Dara’s struggle as a black woman in a law firm, Amaka dating a non-Nigerian and not seeing it as long term and Lillian feeling lost and trying to find her place were all realistic.

But then the next minute, it just felt like the drama was never ending and it was being stretched out for no reason and because I was itching for a resolution, the characters started becoming annoying. I specifically found Dara to be bratty. The pace picked up the second half of the book and because so much was happening, I didn’t know how I felt. So much was going on and I didn’t have the bandwidth to care deeply for all of them. That’s the other thing, be prepared for a million and one stories going on at the same time.

I did this book on audio and I honestly wouldn’t recommend doing audio, if you are Nigerian. The narrator had a British accent and was fine for the general narration but when it came to pronouncing the Igbo names, the pronunciation was terrible and in the little Igbo spoken, it was butchered. Her American accent was such struggle bus and it had me cringing and the last straw for me was when she read out the famous 1004 apartments as 10-04 vs. one thousand and four. There were also a bunch of volume or tone fluctuations where you could tell the difference from when she picked it up at a different time.

Overall, as mentioned above, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. I do think that it was a decent read that serves well as a filler read or reading palate cleanser. I think it is obvious that this is a debut book but I would still check out other books by her.

Taynement

Uncategorized

Book Review: My Friends by Fredrik Backman

twonightstands

“The world is full of miracles, but none greater than how far a young person can be carried by someone else’s belief in them.”

Four teenagers create a bond so powerful that it transcends years and manages to affect lives beyond their own. This book begins with a famous painting by a famous artist on sale. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea but Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, she sees three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner. After the painting unexpectedly falls into her care, her curiosity sends her on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and what to do with it.

“Adults often think that self-confidence is something a child learns, but little kids are by their nature always invincible, it’s self-doubt that needs to be taught.”

This book is a coming-of-age story of 4 teenagers. While there are some humorous moments between the friends, most of the book focuses on the difficulties each of them is facing at home. Joar, whose father beats him and his mother. Ted, whose father is dying and whose mother is struggling to stay above the water and Ali – whose father moves around all the time to escape gambling debts and The Artist – the one who paints his friends on the beach one random summer and goes on to become a famous artist.

“You can’t love someone out of addiction. All the oceans are the tears of those who have tried”

I thought this book was extremely overwritten and bordering on cringy. Every line had a simile or metaphor or a turn of phrase that just made the story sound unreal. It was verbose and meandering. I usually like Backman’s writing, but it seems like he didn’t have that much story here and decided to fill the pages with over-the-top flowery language that did not move the story forward.

It took me a long time to finish this book because I was always dreading picking it up. This book is 450 pages and for a book where nothing happens it did not need to be that long. I understand Backman’s style of writing, and I’ve enjoyed his life-affirming heartwarming style in the past, but they usually come with a dose of reality when he writes his dialogue and his descriptions, and that did not happen here.

“Death is public but dying is private, the very last private thing we have”

Backman is still an amazing writer, and I’ll definitely pick up his next book, but this one did not work for me at all. Have y’all read this? What did you think of it?

Leggy

Book Related Topics

Our 2026 Reading Goals

twonightstands

Leggy:

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season – I know I did. I was off from January 1st through the 4th, and I spent that time relaxing and reading, which couldn’t have been more perfect. When we were putting together our best and worst books of 2025, I realized I was still behind on my Goodreads goal of 70 books. It turns out Goodreads had double-counted two titles, and I noticed far too late. That meant I had to read three books in three days to make it and somehow, I pulled it off. I finished my 70th book at 10 p.m. on December 31st, which was such a satisfying way to close out the year. Honestly, it was the best possible way to spend New Year’s Eve.

Despite having a truly awful 2025, I’m surprised and proud that I still managed to hit my reading goal. I also noticed that I read a lot of romance last year, and through making monthly “best and worst” Instagram posts, I realized that most of my lowest-rated reads were romance novels. I also realized that without actually trying, I read a lot of women authors. A lot of the books I read skew female and besides the traditional fantasy books I read, I don’t really read a lot of male written books. I’m trying to study my reading patterns so that I can consciously make 2026 a better reading year for me. I found that in 2025, I read a lot of average books. I did not feel passionate about a lot of books I read and I want to pick better this year.

Per usual, I read a book from every category of the Goodreads Books of the Year. I really enjoy reading diversely and would like to keep that going in 2026. I have set my Goodreads challenge to 70 books like always, so we’ll see where this year takes us. Follow us on @nightstands2 to see all our thoughts and reviews of the books we read this year.

Taynement:

Reading has always been an outlet for me and I intend to continue that in 2026. I don’t think my goals will change much this year because I want it to continue being a source of joy to me and unfortunately that includes DNF’ing any book that feels like a chore. I tried to do that this year but sometimes FOMO wins and oh yes that’s another goal of mine – to give in to my FOMO. I hate being left out so I always try to read the buzzy titles so I can be part of the discourse.

I am a fiction girlie so I will be knee deep in those, I will always continue to support black and African authors so my reading will also be full of those. I will also try to read at least one book from different genres that aren’t my norm. I have a bunch of books that I saw repeatedly on “Best of 2025” lists that I hope to read in 2026 and if any of my must read authors – Tayari Jones, Chimamanda, Taylor Jenkins Reid etc. have a book out, it’s a must read as well for me.

As always, I have set a 30 book goal on Goodreads, I have also joined Storygraph and will be using it for the first time to log my books. I am looking forward to being lost in good storytelling and sharing that with you guys and like Leggy said follow us on Instagram!

Wishing everyone a good reading year!

Best & Worst

Our Best and Worst Books of 2025

twonightstands

Another year of reading is coming to a close and as always, we share with you what our best and worst books of the year were.

Taynement’s Best:

Most of the books I enjoyed this year were not flashy, out there books. They were books that just sat with me and moved me. Grown Women is a story about four generations of women who wanted to get it right as mothers but in their own ways fell short of doing that. Some may argue that the book was a little sad since it touched on trauma, abuse and some mental health issues but that was not the case for me as it was part of their story and in reality, the story of a lot of black women. It felt like one long therapy session reading about their lives, recognizing their failings and working on correcting it. Overall, even though I was reading about very flawed characters, I still found myself rooting for them and wanting to follow their journey.

Other favorites:

  • You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto – This was not a subtle book and it had me delighted from start to finish. You can read my review here.
  • Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh.
  • Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein: I am a sucker for a family story so this was no different. The first chapter starts with an outrageous request and by th etime you are done with the book it doesn’t seem so outrageous. You can read my review on it here.
  • Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson: Another family story that spanned generations and delved into the history of an affluent African-American family.

Leggy’s Best:

“Respect, that’s all we demand. Recognition of our magnificence. Offerings. Love. Fear. Trembling awe. Worship. Shiny things. Blood sacrifice, some of us very much enjoy blood sacrifice. Truly, we ask for so little.”

I stumbled on this book while browsing Goodreads a couple weeks ago. I was shocked that I had never heard of it even though it had thousands of reviews. These days when I read a fantasy plot and it has no romance in it then I know it’s for me. Everyone knows how much I do not like romantasy. Give me revenge. Write me a story of a character burning everything down to achieve his/her means and you’ll have me immediately. Give me a smart character! Give me strength! Give me twists. I have enjoyed everyone I recommended this book to coming back to me at certain points to be like WTF?! and I’m like “I KNOW!”. Anyway, this is the best book I read this year.

Some other favorites:

  • “Being beautiful, was that for men?”Yes. Some women say that it is for ourselves. What on earth can we do with it? I could have loved myself whether I was hunchbacked or lame, but to be loved by others, you had to be beautiful.”
    I Who Have Never Known Man by Jacqueline Harpman. This is a work in translation that was originally written in 1995 and had quite the resurgence this year. I absolutely love this one. It was so well written but also gave no answers. It made me feel so claustrophobic and I could not imagine actually living that life.

  • “I often think of how much love is lost as gay kids grow up. We are robbed of the chance to experience the innocence of early teenage love. Because you spend all that time filled with fear, mastering your own pretense.”
    Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh. Tayne and I chitchatted about this one here.

  • “It’s a very particular time in your life, when someone you love is dying. The world doesn’t stop for you. We know this, but in our hearts we are shocked. We are like famous people who say: But don’t you know who I am? Except we want to say, But don’t you know what I’m going through? How can you speak to me like that when my mother is dying?”
    Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. Tayne reviewed this here.

Taynement’s Worst:

Like Leggy, my worst book is an old read. It was a work book club choice and I just could not get into it. I couldn’t get invested in the characters. It was a chore to understand and it just didn’t evoke any emotion from me.

Special mention to The Favorites by Layne Fargo. It did evoke emotions from me but not good ones. I just kept thinking “this makes no sense”. It also just read like it was written strictly for a movie adaptation and didn’t work for me.

Leggy’s Worst:

Usually, I just look for the book I gave one star and give it the worst book of the year, but I didn’t give any 1 star this year. I gave this book 2 stars which I actually give to many books. 2 stars to me just means it was okay, wasn’t for me. So, this was the most not for me out of all the books I gave two stars to this year.

I finally read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I know I’m super later than the rest of the world, but I finally got there. I found this book to be incredibly self-indulgent, and I couldn’t understand why it swept the world by storm. I just do not get it. I think Gilbert is a good writer though. I’m just not sure she’s a self-aware human.

Thank you so much for sticking with us this year. Let us know your best and worst books of the year in the comments. Happy Holidays, everybody!

Taynement & Leggy

african author, african stories, Black Authors, Fiction, LGBT, literary fiction, Nigerian Author, romance, We Chit Chat

We Chit Chat – Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh

twonightstands

“It’s one thing to love a child, but it’s an entirely different thing for the same child to feel loved. A home is the last place a child should feel conditionally loved.”

Leggy: I remember seeing this book months ago on Bookstagram. An Asian content creator popped up on my feed talking about this book and I sent it to you and suggested we read this.

Taynement: Yep! It was a book by a Nigerian author being spoken about by a non-Nigerian and it piqued my interest because something I always talk about is wondering how people who aren’t familiar with the culture digest books about Nigeria.

Leggy: This book follows Obiefuna, who was born into a lower middle-class family in Nigeria. His peculiarities make him the black sheep of his family and when his father finds him in an intimate position with another boy, he ships him off to seminary school.

Taynement: To be clear – his peculiarities to them were the fact that he loved to dance and wasn’t particularly good at sports but in reality, he was gay. Obiefuna was a rainbow baby after his mother suffered many losses. He turned out to be a golden child, and his parents attributed their successes to his birth, and he held a special place in his mother’s heart. His father makes the sole decision to ship him off after finding him in a compromising position with a male apprentice without letting his mother know the reason why.

Leggy: This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I think what makes it so impactful is how quiet and not exaggerated it is. Every time I thought the author was going to make an outrageous choice he always chose something different. And I think the quiet choices make this book even more powerful because you recognize the characters. You know this would absolutely happen in Nigeria. There’s no exaggeration to pull you out of the story and other Obiefuna’s humanity.

Taynement: Yes, it was very realistic, and I agree that it was quiet and not exaggerated. It’s funny because some other books that I have as my faves this year share those same characteristics.

Leggy: What did you think about his experience in boarding school?

Taynement: I think it was true to form. I chuckled when his dad chose that as a form of punishment because it was almost predictable that he would explore his sexuality there. I would say though that I had my heart in my throat the entire time because I kept expecting him to be raped especially when he built a connection with Senior Papilo.

Leggy: Exactly. I was like sending your son to an all-boys school because he’s gay is a choice. That’s something I loved about this book. I thought Senior Papilo was going to rape him as well but that never happened. The author never made any shocking choices and that choice would have been expected.

Taynement: But again, another reason I liked this book is also showing how flawed our parents’ generation was in parenting. They just did not have the tools. His dad thought he was doing his best. Another way that this manifested in the book is when Uzoamaka (Obiefuna’s mother) visited the hospital with Anozie (Obiefuna’s father) and the nurse makes the comment about him being a good man because he accompanied her to the hospital when most men wouldn’t. Anozie loved his family, and he was showing up for his wife.

Leggy: I do believe Anozie genuinely loved his family. He even tried to hide the fact that he found out Obiefuna was gay from his wife because he thought it would break his wife’s heart. When they finally had the discussion in the open and she told him where else would a boy like him be loved if not at home?

Taynement: I do think certain threads were left loose or maybe I did not pick up on their usefulness to the story. The two most prominent were – Ekene’s (Obiefuna’s brother) plot purpose and when Senior Papilo takes him to a brothel.

Leggy: I think Ekene served as a juxtaposition to Obiefuna.

Taynement: I get that, but I don’t know if it was well done. The juxtaposition didn’t seem to have any effect on Obiefuna? Basically, if he was left out of the story would it have affected my understanding of Obiefuna?

Leggy: It was because of him that Obiefuna even came in contact with any traditional masculine things. He would have never gone to the football field if Ekene did not exist. Also, even though Ekene was not that smart he was left in the private school while Obiefuna was moved to seminary school because of his gayness leading the private school to have a meeting with Uzoamaka inquiring why Obiefuna was moved.

Leggy: I also expected Obiefuna’s brother to turn on him at some point because he was portrayed as so macho and being complete opposite of him, but they actually stayed closer than I expected them to. When Obiefuna comes back from holiday and Ekene sings for him to dance. I thought that was such a touching scene.

Taynement: The scene where he tells Obiefuna to dance, do you think it was him acknowledging it? Ekene just seemed to be in the dark about a lot of things.

Leggy: I absolutely think he knew. And I think that scene was a way for him to acknowledge it without having that conversation especially from someone considered traditionally masculine. He was never going to confront it head on.

Leggy: Also, about Senior Papilo taking him to a brothel, honestly, I thought Papilo was gay the way he gathered all those young boys to himself, the way he treated them and the way they competed for his attention. So, when the brothel happened, I was confused. I was actually relieved that the boys just went to a brothel. I genuinely thought they were leaving the school to do something more sinister like armed robbery and that Obiefuna was going to get caught up in it. I was so relieved that that wasn’t the case that I didn’t even think about the brothel anymore. But I think it speaks to how straight men initiate younger boys into what they believe manhood is.

Taynement: Interesting. I do think Papilo is gay but wasn’t going to “give into it”. Papilo is one of those Nigerian men who will marry a woman and live a straight life and a part of me wondered if he was giving Obiefuna an out by taking him to the brothel.

Taynement: And something that struck me was up until the end of the book had Obiefuna actually had sex? He mentions touching and rubbing and we never really going into the nitty gritty of his relationship with the artist.

Leggy: They never described his actual sexual relationship with the artist. Only that he did a lot of drugs with him and I was so worried because obviously Obiefuna was depressed and grieving and I was worried about the path he was heading down. But he never had actual penetrative sex with the long-term boyfriend that comes after the artist.

Taynement: Overall, I think that is the beauty of this book. It was written so well, and it maneuvered from topic to topic so deftly and the story just flowed.

Leggy: This book culminates with the 2014 law that criminalized gay relationships with a hefty 14-year sentence. That was devastating to read about.

Taynement: It was a good balance of reality. I liked the fact that Obiefuna found a community because they do exist in Nigeria.

Leggy: And then when one of his friends was kitoed. By the way, this is an actual thing that happens in Nigeria and that’s when straight men pose as gay men on dating apps to lure gay men out and then they get beaten up, videos are made of them confessing to be gay and then they are robbed while law enforcement looks the other way.

Taynement: All in all, this was a fantastic, well-written book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Leggy: Such a fantastic book. I loved it so much and it was an easy read.

Chick-Lit, Fiction, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

twonightstands

“It occurs to me then that in my effort to be positive, optimistic, and understanding, I might’ve made myself into an unreliable narrator of sorts, someone who can’t easily be trusted not to sugarcoat things.”

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist who is trying to get a big break in her writing career. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning writer who wrote the biography of a very famous singer dying of cancer and is now the most sought after biography writer in the world. Margaret Ives used to be a famous tabloid star born into one of the most storied and scandalous families of the 20th century who ended up marrying a very famous rock star and then disappearing from the limelight after his death. Margaret invites Alice and Hayden for a one-month trial period at Little Crescent Island to compete to write her story after which, she will choose the person who’ll tell her story.

I was a bit hesitant to begin this one because I had come across criticism about how this one isn’t as good as the other ones, so I went into it with trepidation. A lot of people think this book should not be sold as romance but as women’s fiction because they think the romance was not the point of the book. I actually agree with them, but I also think this is why this book worked for me so much. I really enjoyed Margaret’s story a lot. I loved listening to her family’s history, how the tabloid fame came about, her sister’s story and her love life. I think balancing her story with Alice and Hayden’s interactions on the island worked for me. The mystery of why they both were selected made this book compelling to read.

Alice is the typical manic pixie optimistic female characters that we are so used to in romance books while Hayden is the typical smart and grumpy yet soft for the female, protagonist male character that we are so used to in romance books. Did I still enjoy them? Yes. But I think I enjoyed them because they were barely on the page. I enjoyed the forced proximity, the small-town temporary living, the hometown visit, and the baring their souls to each other in order to fall in love tropes. Also, Alice falls in love too quickly with Hayden and if I had to read more of their romance than what Henry gives us, I think I would have been annoyed.

Emily Henry releases a book every year and I think it might be time for her to slow down. I enjoyed this one, but I think if it was purely romance as all her other books have been, I wouldn’t have. Also, there really isn’t much to say about this book but I’m reviewing it because I have reviewed all her other books and want to stay a completist. All in all, I gave this one 3 stars on Goodreads.

Leggy

african author, african stories, Black Authors, Fiction, literary fiction, romance, We Chit Chat, women's fiction

We Chit Chat: My Parents’ Marriage by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

twonightstands

Leggy – I’d never heard of this book before you asked for us to read this together. Also, I thought it was a nonfiction book about the author’s parents’ marriage, and I went into it without knowing anything about it.

Taynement – Yeah, I saw it on Instagram from a follower, and it looked interesting. I love me an African family drama plot. I found it quite interesting, not necessarily because of the writing but more from the human psychology aspect.

Leggy – I ended up finding it deeply fascinating. Also, this book is compulsively readable.

Taynement – Yes! I found it to be such an easy read.

Leggy – I started it yesterday and finished it in 24 hours. It’s hard to put down.

Taynement – The author kept it simple and didn’t overwrite it which I think you would expect because of the complexity of the subject matter. To break it down – the book centers around Mawuli Nuga and how his sexual indiscipline affected his many families, but the story is told through one of his children – Kokui and how her quest to beat the cycle of her father’s actions landed her into a different kind of cycle.

Leggy – Yes, she kept it simple and actually showed you the story, the family and the men without having to spell it out to the readers. She didn’t hit you over the head with any agenda.

Taynement – The book does start with a family tree which means nothing to you before you read the book but makes all the sense when you’re in it.

Leggy – Yeah, I skipped that family tree. It’s just like fantasy books that start with a map. I never study those. I think that if you do your job well, then I’ll know what is in the family tree or in the map after I’ve read your book.

Taynement – Like I always say when we do this, I always wonder how non-Africans ingest a book like this because it makes sense to us, but it must seem so strange and bizarre to them. Mawuli kept making babies and swapping wives like underwear with nary a thought of how they felt. We see the different ways the wives/mothers handled it with Kokui’s mother choosing to go back to her home country but choosing to still stay a legal wife for her children.

Leggy – And then accepting him as a husband once a year when he comes down with the kids for Christmas.

Taynement – While the current wife chose to ignore his indiscretions with the hope of getting his assets upon his death. Thing is, it’s so common for Africans to find out they have outside siblings that I can see how Mawuli didn’t bat an eyelid.

Leggy – Nothing about their dad even fazed me.

Taynement – Children are a sign of success.

Leggy – And he accepted and trained every single child, even the older Antony guy who he disowned. He still paid his way to London and paid his fees till he dropped out.

Taynement – The main fascination of this book was Kokui. Before we get into her, I did wonder why the author chose to make her sister a side character and not do a side by side.

Leggy – I’m glad we just focused on one person. I think a side by side might have made the book more bloated, but I also think she just wanted us to follow one person and see if the person can break the cycle.

Taynement – That’s fair. It was just a floating thought.

Leggy – It’s so easy to run your mouth about all the ways your parents are doing life wrong until you’re having to make those same choices.

Taynement – Kokui was so determined to not be her mum and thought her mum was basically an idiot which I understand, but what I didn’t understand was the swiftness in which she wanted to marry her husband. It was so immature and… idiotic?

Leggy – I actually didn’t think her mum was an idiot. I understand why her mum stayed. Her mum thought her staying would secure her children’s inheritance. Their mother told them that their dad promised her that one of the two of her girls would be appointed to run his company. She felt like she had made a shitty choice in marrying him and was trying to salvage it as best as she could. But yes, I found Kokui to be such a dumb and stupid character. I also went from not liking Boris to being as irritated as him about Kokui’s decisions and naivete.

Taynement – I think she was immature and tunnel visioned. You have to remember that she was privileged. A privileged kid who didn’t seem to realize how privileged she was. She thought her father’s indiscretions gave her a ticket to say she had a hard life. Which part annoyed you the most?

Leggy – The way she kept saying she wanted a job that would give her a spark. Like girl, you are working in New York illegally. Where would you get that job?

Taynement – Lol. Again, naive. What did you think of Boris in the NYC days?

Leggy – I understood him completely. He was being realistic about their lives. They needed to save. Also, he made the right decision not to rent an apartment for those first 6 months before they left for school but to stay on Sammy’s couch. That’s how they saved so much money. Also, Kokui staying and helping out with babysitting was always the logical thing to do.

Taynement – So even before they left for New York, I think there was an underbelly to Boris. He wanted the benefits of her dad but was uncomfortable with it.

Leggy – I felt that from the second they met. That’s why I was so annoyed by her being so fascinated with him. You could tell there was an anger at her for having an easier life. Also, her desperation to marry him and to have a better marriage than her parents was insane. I would think the more logical thing would be not to marry at all. Why did she not dread getting married? Why did she run so fast towards it?

Taynement – Indoctrination. She thinks she’s so above it all but could not fathom rebelling against the norm by just not getting married. Another aspect I found fascinating is they both disagreed on a lot of things but were on the same page when it came to kids.

Leggy – That was such a relief that they were on the same page with kids and even birth control. Imagine bringing a kid into that and overcomplicating the relationship before you’ve had a chance to figure out how it’s all supposed to work. Also, at least Boris was hardworking and smart. Honestly, my fear was that he would become abusive. That’s also why I liked this book so much. It wasn’t cliche in the way I was expecting.

Taynement – Yes, exactly. His deference to Sammy annoyed me.

Leggy – I think he was just grateful to how much Sammy helped them those first 6 months in New York City. Do you think Kokui succeeded in having a marriage better than her parents?

Taynement – I think it was too soon to tell and another tick for the author for me. I like how she didn’t make Boris bad or good and truly showed the complexities of a relationship. I was fully with Kokui wanting to leave but then her seeing that he was ambitious and was there for her through the big thing that happened, it wasn’t so clear cut. I honestly didn’t consider her parents’ marriage a marriage. It was an arrangement. At least Kokui and Boris cared for each other.

Leggy – I think it was a marriage. Remember they were together for 12 long years before the big reveal which then led to the rift that we see in the book. I agree with you about Kokui and Boris’ marriage. I like that it wasn’t black and white, it was very complex. And nobody is ever going to give you that perfect marriage. There are things that should be deal breakers and then you should just try to live with the ones that are not.

Taynement – I actually think they can make it work. They need time, maturity and money.

Leggy – Yes, I think their marriage is going to be fine. It won’t be the fairytale marriage she envisioned but it will have the messiness of what a real life actually consists of.

Taynement – Were there aspects of the book you didn’t like?

Leggy – Honestly when I started this book, I was so annoyed by the characters but after finishing it, I just felt like there was no misplaced word. All the things I thought I did not like from the beginning became a piece to the puzzle that we could not do without. I didn’t think it was the best written book ever, but it told a very simple story in a compelling way.

Taynement – Yes, the bones of the story were good enough to get away with such simple writing. Would you recommend this to someone?

Leggy – Yes but honestly probably just to other Africans.

Taynement – Ha. If we do have any non-African readers, I’d love to know your thoughts on this book.

dystopian, Fantasy, literary fiction

Book Review: Tilt by Emma Pattee

twonightstands

“You and me, when we die, we’re going to evaporate back into the earth like we were never even here. Bodies made of air, bodies made of dirt.”

Annie is 9 months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, she decides to walk to his workplace and then go home with him. As she makes her way across Portland and witnesses human desperation, kindness and depravity, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career and her anxiety about having a baby.

“People will tell you that everything is clear in hindsight, but really it’s just rewritten.”

The events in this book all take place within a day. As Annie makes her way across Portland, she forms an unlikely friendship with a young woman who helped her at IKEA, and they walk some of the way together. Annie’s reflection about her marriage and her past was super compelling to listen to. Looking back at the stagnation of your life when it’s been upheaved is very fascinating. She performs an autopsy of her life and marriage and how she got there, as she walks to her husband. And I did not like her husband, at all. I understand how hard it is to let go of a dream, but I felt like he was selfish in not accepting that that dream was dead.

“I want something more than this. That thought is like a pebble tossed inside a lake, sinking down into darkness. It’s better to forget the things you want but don’t have. The happiest people are the ones who want what they already have. This ache, this ache inside of me, I don’t know how to get rid of it.”

This is not a thriller or a suspense. I suspect this expectation and its ending, are the reasons for the middling rating on Goodreads. The book ends at the end of the day with no resolution; nothing is wrapped up in a pretty bow. We are still in the middle of a natural disaster that has decimated hundreds of thousands, and Portland is still on fire. This book is primarily about the journey and not about the destination. I enjoyed the writing so much and I think it kept me pushing. Also, this book is less than 250 pages, so it goes by fast. I think this is a well-executed and thought-provoking novel and you should give it a try.

“While washing the dishes, only be washing the dishes—that’s what he always says. Some Buddhism shit he read on Instagram. Only a man could say something like that.”

If you like plot driven books, then this is not the book for you. Plenty happens since this is the middle of an earthquake, but nothing actually pushes the plot forward. This book is purely character driven and I completely understand why so many didn’t like this book, but I did. If you go into it after reading this review with a clear understanding of what this book is, I think you’d like it too.

Have you read this one? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Leggy

Black Authors, Chick-Lit, Fiction, literary fiction, race, romance, women's fiction

Book Review: Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

twonightstands

“The world isn’t designed for women like me. Women who’d rather be single literally for years than settle for a partner not worthy of her”

The third of the Skyland series, this story focuses on Hendrix Barry. Hendrix is a great friend, a good daughter, thriving in her career in the entertainment industry and is also happily single with no interest in having kids. Everything is going well until her mom is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. As Hendrix is trying to adjust to this new reality she meets Maverick Bell.

Maverick Bell is a tech billionaire fresh off a public breakup from a relationship that ended because he doesn’t want any more kids. He is also still grieving the loss of his grandfather to Alzheimer’s as well. The two meet at a party hosted by his ex-girlfriend and it’s an instant connection and attraction. Seems easy but one catch is Maverick’s ex-girlfriend, Zeze have a budding friendship and is Hendrix’s business partner for an upcoming TV show. Does Hendrix stay loyal to a new friend or pursue this once in a lifetime connection? (spoiler alert: she chooses the man)

“Last night, was Maverick asking me to give up my dreams? Or asking to run with me while I chase them?”

I like Kennedy Ryan’s writing and this was no different. Ryan finds a way to infuse real life into romance with a sprinkling of steamy and a dash of fantasy living and this book is no different. As someone who doesn’t really read romance, she serves it in a way that I can digest. We get to read the book from both Maverick and Hendrix’s view point and it was good to know what the other was thinking. Ryan made sure to let us know that she had first hand experience with Alzheimer’s and I think she did a good job of showing how much this disease affects a family both from the person who has it and the caretakers involved. I appreciated how much care she took with the subject matter.

“You said being whole means acknowledging all our parts. And that there were parts of me that wanted to be held, want to be needed and loved.”

Ryan has always been consistent with her characters cherishing strong friendships where the women are always there for each other and encourage each other and I appreciate it. Another thing she did in this book was provide representation for curvy women who are confident in their body and a man who appreciated it. Hendrix is also a woman who was not opposed to being partnered and lived a full life and I liked how it was okay for her to pursue that when she met someone she considered a partner. Her choice to not have children was also good to remind people that it is possible to have that choice.

“I want you to believe that. Every love isn’t forever. We can love people along the way. Relationships can begin and then end.”

Now I liked this book and as a stand alone it is good but I think I’ll say this was the weakest of the trilogy as it was formulaic for me. I am not knocking Ryan for finding a formula that works – Protagonist meets man, there is mucho attraction, they overcome obstacles and decide to jump in, they have hot sex, there is usually an illness/death (which I know she draws from personal experience) and then they live happily ever after with lots of hot, steamy sex. But not without the love and support of good family and good friends – but by the third book the novelty has worn off for me and I know what to expect.

As with most romance novels, I think you have to suspend disbelief for certain things for the story to move along. Some may consider dating the ex of an associate a little messy but maybe the whole point was sometimes you have to be selfish and go for what you want. Overall, it’s a book with a lil’ something for everyone and it works. It’s just that I wanted to love it but only ended up liking it enough.

Taynement

Fiction, literary fiction, Mystery, romance, thriller

Book Review: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

twonightstands

“When it comes to marriage, love is merely a visitor over a lifetime. Respect and kindness, they are the true foundations.”

It’s 1975 in Monta Clare, a small town in Missouri, and girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted and is saved by a local, partially blind boy – Patch, the lives of everyone associated with him will never be the same. Patch and those who love him, discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. Everyone’s search for answers will lead them to years of sadness and unexpected paths.

“At ten years old he realized that people were born whole, and that the bad things peeled layers from the person you once were, thinning compassion and empathy and the ability to construct a future. At thirteen he knew those layers could sometimes be rebuilt when people loved you. When you loved.”

This book was published last year, and the hype was insane. I actually requested this book from my library countless times and just never took the plunge to read it. I kept sending it back and requesting it again and again because there was something about the blurb that told me I would not enjoy it and that thing was absolutely right. This book finally checked out to me while I was away on holiday, and I finally took the plunge. It did not live up to the hype for me at all. All the characters did not feel like real people, they felt like literary characters that can only exist in a book. I don’t expect to relate to characters; I just want the author to convince me that that character exists somewhere on earth and Whitaker failed on that account for me.

“God is a first call and a last resort, from christening to death bed. In between is where faith is tested. The mundanity. Anyone can drop to their knees when they’re facing crisis, but doing it when everything is steady…”

Let me first say that this book is extremely well written. I can quote you a million lines that show you that Chris Whitaker is a damn good writer. I also think you would like this book better if you know what to expect. So, I’m going to tell you what to expect – this book is a sloooooowwwwww character driven drama. Yes, it is a mystery but it’s not a traditional mystery. This is a book about what happens after you’re saved from what could have been a terrible tragedy. Whitaker takes the scenic view to get you to the end. Which would be everything you hoped it would be, except the journey there is so circuitous and meandering that you just want it to end.

“The shrink they make me see, she taps her pencil and frowns at me. And she talks about how we construct our ideals out of our own past mistakes. And I wonder what exactly a mistake is. A thing we should not have done, right? But if learning is built on trial and error there can be no mistakes, only rungs on a ladder to someplace better.”

I never understood Saint’s motivations to do what she did. I think her whole life was dedicated to Patch and I never understood it. It felt like Saint was absolutely in love with Patch while Patch did not feel an inkling of romantic love for her. Every decision Saint took was to the service of Patch and I understand doing that when you’re young and he’s your only friend. But when Patch comes back and Saint remains utterly devoted to him, I just did not understand her motivation. Patch never did a single thing to deserve all that and it’s like the author realizes that at the end and just decides to have Patch make a stupid decision and then claim it was for Saint.

“Saint knew that for some it was written in the stars that no matter how hard they fought their road did not lead somewhere good.”

This book was 597 pages. It did not need to be this long. I gave it 3 stars purely because of the writing and its satisfying ending.

Have you heard of this one? Have you read it? What did you think of it?

Leggy